1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that ejects liquid to record a maintenance pattern on a recording medium, and checks the printed condition of the maintenance pattern to detect an ejection failure of the liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a recording apparatus such as an ink-jet printing apparatus, for example, an ejection failure of ink sometimes occurs due to a clogging of a nozzle that ejects ink or due to an inclusion of air bubbles in a path for supplying ink.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-347488 discusses a recording apparatus that employs a continuous sheet rolled up as a recording medium. According to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-347488, ink is ejected from a nozzle to an optional position of a sheet to record a predetermined image or a maintenance pattern during the continuous printing operation in the continuous sheet. A nozzle that has an ejection failure is detected by checking the recording state of the maintenance pattern. This result is fed back to maintain the best print quality.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-347488 discusses that the recording state of the maintenance pattern is checked, and this result is fed back to the printing operation, but does not describe how to handle a cut sheet having an image recorded thereon.